Traditional Japanese musical instruments

Women playing the Shamisen, Tsuzumi, and Taiko in Meiji-era Japan.

Traditional Japanese musical instruments, known as wagakki (和楽器) in Japanese, are musical instruments used in the traditional folk music of Japan. They comprise a range of string, wind, and percussion instruments.

Percussion instruments

Bin-sasara (編木、板ささら); also spelled bin-zasara – clapper made from wooden slats connected by a rope or cord
Chappa (— チャッパ) - Hand cymbals
Hyoshigi (拍子木) – wooden or bamboo clappers
Den-den daiko (でんでん太鼓) – pellet drum, used as a children's toy
Ikko – small, ornately decorated hourglass-shaped drum
Kagura suzu – hand-held bell tree with three tiers of pellet bells
Kakko (羯鼓) – small drum used in gagaku
Kane (鉦) – small flat gong
Kokiriko (筑子、こきりこ) – a pair of sticks which are beaten together slowly and rhythmically
Shakubyoshi (also called shaku) – clapper made from a pair of flat wooden sticks
Mokugyo (木魚, also called 'wooden fish') – woodblock carved in the shape of a fish, struck with a wooden stick; often used in Buddhist chanting
Ōtsuzumi (大鼓) – hand drum
Rin or daikin (大磬) – singing bowls used by Buddhist monks in religious practice or rituals
San-no-tsuzumi (三の鼓) – hourglass-shaped double-headed drum; struck only on one side
Sasara (ささら) – clapper made from wooden slats connected by a rope or cord
Sekkin – a lithophone either bowed or struck
Shime-daiko (締太鼓) – small drum played with sticks
Shōko (鉦鼓) – small bronze gong used in gagaku; struck with two horn beaters
Taiko (太鼓, lit. 'great drum')
Tsuri-daiko (釣太鼓) – drum on a stand with ornately painted head, played with a padded stick
Tsuzumi (鼓) – small hand drum

String instruments

Plucked

Zithers

Ichigenkin (一絃琴) – monochord
Junanagen (十七絃) – the 17-string koto
Koto (琴、箏) – a long zither
Yamatogoto (大和琴) – ancient long zither; also called wagon (和琴)

Harps

Kugo (箜篌) – an angled harp used in ancient times and recently revived
Taishōgoto (大正琴) – a zither with metal strings and keys

Lutes

Biwa – a pear-shaped lute

Other

Gottan or hako-jamisen
Sanshin (三線, lit. 'three strings') – an Okinawan precursor of the mainland Japanese (and Amami Islands) shamisen
Shamisen (三味線) – a banjo-like lute with three strings; brought to Japan from China in the 16th century. Popular in Edo's pleasure districts, the shamisen is often used in kabuki theater. Made from red sandalwood and ranging from 1.1 to 1.4 metres (3 ft 7 in to 4 ft 7 in) long, the shamisen has ivory pegs, strings made from twisted silk, and a belly covered in cat or dog skin or a synthetic skin.^[a] The strings, which are of different thickness, are plucked or struck with a tortoise shell, ivory or synthetic ivory pick.
Tonkori (トンコリ) – a plucked instrument used by the Ainu people of Hokkaidō

Bowed

Kokyū – a bowed lute with three (or, more rarely, four) strings and a skin-covered body

Wind instruments

Flutes

Japanese flutes are called fue (笛). There are eight traditional flutes, as well as more modern creations.

Hocchiku (法竹) – vertical bamboo flute
Nohkan (能管) – transverse bamboo flute used for Noh theater
Ryūteki (龍笛) – transverse bamboo flute used for gagaku
Kagurabue (神楽笛) – transverse bamboo flute used for mi-kagura (御神楽), Shinto ritual music)
Komabue (高麗笛) – transverse bamboo flute used for komagaku; similar to the ryūteki
Shakuhachi (尺八) – vertical bamboo flute used for Zen meditation
Shinobue (篠笛) – transverse folk bamboo flute
Tsuchibue (土笛(つちぶえ), lit. 'earthen flute') – globular flute made from clay
Bow flute (弓笛) – a flute developed by Ishida Nehito with bow hair on it to accompany the kokyū.^[1]

Reed instruments

Hichiriki (篳篥) – double-reeded flute used in different kinds of music

Free reed mouth organs

Shō (笙) – 17-pipe mouth organ used for gagaku
U (竽) – large mouth organ

Horns

Horagai (法螺貝) – seashell horn; also called jinkai (陣貝)

Other instruments

Mukkuri (ムックリ) – jaw harp used by the Ainu people
Koukin (口琴) – general name for the jaw harp, also known as the biyabon (びやぼん) in the Edo period

Notes

^ Though animal skin was used in previous decades—as recently as the 1970s—due to a decline in its production, synthetic skins, which are considered to provide a generally equal sound quality, are typically used in the modern day. During its period of common use, cat skin was used for finer instruments, and dog skin was used for practice instruments.

References

^ "素麺箱玲琴・弓笛製作 of 胡弓・大胡弓・玲琴・クーチョー・雛胡弓など多彩な胡弓を奏でる胡弓演奏家石田音人胡弓奏者石田音人の音楽活動を紹介". nehito.com (in Japanese).

Bibliography

Gunji, Sumi; Johnson, Henry (2012). A Dictionary of Traditional Japanese Musical Instruments: From Prehistory to the Edo Period. Tokyo: Eideru Kenkyūjo. ISBN 978-4-87168-513-9..

[1] Though animal skin was used in previous decades—as recently as the 1970s—due to a decline in its production, synthetic skins, which are considered to provide a generally equal sound quality, are typically used in the modern day. During its period of common use, cat skin was used for finer instruments, and dog skin was used for practice instruments.

[2] "素麺箱玲琴・弓笛製作 of 胡弓・大胡弓・玲琴・クーチョー・雛胡弓など多彩な胡弓を奏でる胡弓演奏家石田音人胡弓奏者石田音人の音楽活動を紹介". nehito.com (in Japanese).

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